George Cornell (1928 - 1966) - Find A Grave Memorial London Borough of Tower Hamlets Greater London, England Villain of London's East End during the 1960's and former associate from childhood of the legendary Kray twins. His birth name was George Myers. Cornell moved to South London, and joined the gang of "Mad" Frankie Fraser and Eddie Richardson, arch enemy of the Kray's. Cornell would often talk down to the Krays whenever they tried to muscle in on any dealings with Fraser and Richardson. This displeased the Kray's, particularly Ronnie. Rumour was spreading that Cornell had been calling Ronnie Kray terrible names and mocking him. When Ronnie got word of this it finally made his mind-up that Cornell was to be killed. On the night of the 9th March, 1966, Ronnie got word that Cornell was drinking in the Blind Beggar pub, in the heart of the East End. Ronnie summoned one of his drivers, John 'Scotch Jack' Dickson to take him there along with Ian Barrie his right-hand man. When they arrived at The Blind Beggar, Dickson waited outside while Ronnie and Ian Barrie went inside.

Cornell and Albie Woods (fellow Richardson gang member) were seated at the bar. When Cornell saw Ronnie he calmly said, "Well look who's here" in a sneering sort of way. Ronnie did not say a word. He took a 9mm Mauser pistol from his pocket and shot Cornell. Ian Barrie fired some shots into the ceiling. They both turned around and walked out as calmly as they had walked in.There was a record playing on the juke box that had been hit by one of the ricocheting bullets. It was 'The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore' by the Walker Brothers and it kept repeating, "the sun ain't gonna shine any more...any more...any more..." It wasn't long before Ronnie was arrested and put on an identification parade. The witnesses couldn't (more likely wouldn't) identify Ronnie and he was released, a sign of the hold and respect East Ender's had for the Kray Twins. Kray was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder three years later and remained in prison until his death in 1995.

(bio by: Kieran Smith) Cause of death: Shot by Ronnie Kray The Krays George Cornell On the 9th of March 1966, George Cornell was killed in the Blind Beggar public house by Ronnie Kray. It has been said that Ronnie killed him because he called him a big fat poof to his face. If this had been the case then he would have been killed there and then. The fact that he may have uttered these words at all would prove to be just another nail in his coffin. George Cornell had grown up with the Twins in the back streets of the East End so they knew him as well as anyone. They weren't afraid of him but they knew what he was capable of and they were always wary of him. He was a formidable looking figure, about six foot tall , with a neck like a tree trunk. The man knew no fear, he was aggressive and could handle anything or anyone that got in his way. He has been described as a 'sick sadistic bastard' that loved to inflict pain on his enemies. He once got 3 years for slashing a woman's face. He was a heavy drinker and when he was drunk everyone would stay well clear of him.

He moved to South London after meeting a girl from The Elephant and Castle. And it wasn't too long before he teamed up with Charlie and Eddie Richardson, the scrap metal dealers who ruled South London and Mad Frankie Fraser, the enforcer. The Krays were upset that their one time acquaintance had teemed up with their rivals who, as well as the Krays, were fighting for control of gangland London and the West End in particular. There were a number of occasions when the Twins tried to muscle in on the Richardsons but were told by Cornell, in no uncertain terms that there wasn't any room for them in the deals. They seemed to accept this at the time but Ronnie didn't like being spoken down to, especially by Cornell. This played on Ronnie's mind and when the shooting at Mr Smith's and the Witchdoctor took place, he knew he had to act. It was at Mr Smith's that their cousin Dickie Hart was shot and killed. They blamed Cornell, who they say, was the only one to escape from the scene. A few days later, Cornell and Albie Woods were visiting their friend Jimmy Andrews in hospital who had lost his leg in a shooting.

On the way back they stopped for a drink at the Blind Beggar public house in the Whitechapel road. The Twins were having a drink with some of the Firm in the 'Widows' pub in Tapp street. It's real name was the Lion but it was called the 'Widows' because the Landlady's husband had died. Ronnie received a phone call telling him that Cornell was in the Blind Beggar. He told Reg that he was going to do Cornell. Reg said "lets talk about it". But Ronnie didn't want to talk. His mind had been made up long before the phone call. He took Reg's driver, John 'Scotch Jack' Dickson and Ian Barrie, his right hand man. They jumped in their ford cortina and set off for the Beggars. On the way they stopped to pick up some guns. When they arrived at the pub, Dickson waited outside while Ron and Ian Barrie went inside. Cornell and Woods were seated at the bar. When Cornell saw Ron he said, "Well look who's here" in a mocking, sneering sort of way.

Ron didn't say a word he just took a 9mm Mauser pistol from his pocket and shot Cornell In the head. Ian Barrie fired some shots into the ceiling. They turned around and walked out as calmly as they had walked in. There was a record playing on the juke box that had been hit by one of the ricocheting bullets. It was called 'The sun ain't gonna shine any more' by the Walker Brothers and it and it kept repeating, "the sun ain't gonna shine any more...any more...any more..... A fitting epitaph for George Cornell. Ron went back to the widows and told Reg what had happened. They then went to a pub called the Chequers where they got cleaned up and changed their clothes. The news on the radio confirmed that Cornell was dead. Ron couldn't have been happier. It wasn't long before the Twins were arrested and put on an identification parade. The witnesses couldn't or wouldn't identify them and they had to be released. The killing of George Cornell, for the moment, was put to rest. The Blind Beggar And The Bloody Killing of George Cornell by Ronnie Kray | Ronnie Kray 1969 – At last in Gaol.

ONE hundred and one years after the evangelist William Booth preached his first open air sermon outside the Blind Beggar Public House on the Whitechapel Road – a sermon which ultimately led to the establishment of the Salvation Army – Ronnie Kray walked into the very same pub. Or at least it would have been the same pub had it not been rebuilt in 1894 by the Mann, Crossman and Paulin’s Albion Brewery at the same address. It was 8.30pm on 9 March 1966 and Kray was accompanied by his right-hand man Ian Barrie, while his driver, John ‘Scotch Jack’ Dickson, was told to wait outside in his Mark 1 Cortina. A pub had been on the same spot in Whitechapel since 1673 and it was named after Henry de Montfort, the son of the Earl of Leicester, who is said to have posed as a blind beggar to escape detection after the battle of Evesham in 1265. Of course Ronald Kray wouldn’t have been the first villain, big-time or otherwise, who had found themselves in that infamous East End pub.

Before the First World War the Blind Beggar was the meeting-place of a gang of pick-pockets and ne’er do wells. One of them called ‘Bulldog’ Wallis got into a fight with a Jewish couple and ended up killing the man by pushing the tip of his umbrella through one of his eyes. The East End code of silence prevailed and ‘no one saw nuffink’ and Wallis had to be released from police custody through lack of evidence. Accompanied by his cheering supporters he returned to the Blind Beggar a hero. There was no cheering when Ronnie Kray arrived at the Blind Beggar, he and Barrie entered the pub quietly and without a fuss. That is until Barrie shot two bullets into the ceiling. Kray had been told that George Cornell, a member of the sadistic and ruthless south London Richardsons’ gang, was drinking in the pub. Not only was Cornell part of a gang who were the Krays’ main rivals he was particularly disliked by Ronnie who would write one day: In front of a table full of villains, George Cornell called me a “fat poof”. He virtually signed his own death warrant.

There were just five people in the pub, Cornell and two of his friends, Albie Woods and Johnny Dale who were all at one end of the bar, a 79 year old man was sitting at the other end reading a newspaper and half watching the television, and also a barmaid who was washing glasses and who had just put on ‘The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore’ by the Walker Bothers on the pub’s record player. The Blind Beggar didn’t have a juke box. When George Cornell saw Ronnie approaching he said, sarcastically: “Well, look who’s here…”. While Woods and Dale were sloping away to hide in the gents, Ronnie walked over to Cornell, took out a 9mm Mauser from his pocket and shot him through his head at close range. Kray wrote in the twins’ autobiography, Our Story: He fell forward on to the bar. There was some blood on the counter. That’s all that happened. Nothing more. Blood stains on the floor inside the Blind Beggar public house in Whitechapel where George Cornell was killed. View of counter area looking through into lounge inside the Blind Beggar public house in Whitechapel where George Cornell was killed.

A police photograph of the dead man George Cornell who was killed at the Blind Beggar public house in Whitechapel. A police photograph of a very dead George Cornell. PA images. Once outside, and according to ‘Scotch Jack’ the driver, Ronnie Kray was now genuinely excited: ‘I actually shot him,’ Ronnie said, ‘I actually shot him.’ They drove the Cortina back to the Lion pub on Tapp Street about half a mile away. Reggie was was drinking with some of the Firm at the pub and after being told what happened jumped up and shouted: “Drive off the manor. Just drive off the manor.” In various cars and taking different routes the Firm ended up in a back room of the Chequer’s public house on the High Street in Walthamstow. Ronnie’s clothes were burnt and the 9mm Mauser was given to the cat-burglar Charlie Clark to be disposed of. Not particularly well it seems as years later the German 9mm pistol was found in the mud of the River Lee and is now in Scotland Yard’s Black Museum. George Cornell had been left bleeding on the floor of the Blind Beggar.

The manager of the pub, a woman called Patsy Quill, called an ambulance and it wasn’t long before the dying man was being seen by doctors across the road in the London Hospital. They quickly had the patient transferred to Maida Vale Hospital which specialised in brain injuries but at 10.29pm, and roughly two hours after he had been shot, Cornell died before any operation took place. At midnight the Firm gathered round the radio and cheered when the death of George Cornell was announced. ‘Always shoot to kill’ said a relieved Ronnie before adding usefully, ‘dead men can’t speak.’ Police are pictured outside the Blind Beggar Public House, Whitechapel Road. The police found it impossible to find witnesses to the murder. The two friends of Cornell – Albie Woods and Johnny Dale -had quickly slipped away out the back of the pub but not before wiping the glasses on the counter to get rid of any fingerprints. The barmaid at the Blind Beggar said she hadn’t seen who did it.

The old man was asked by the police why he would not help put Ronnie Kray away: “I hate the sight of blood,” he said, “particularly my own.” Although the police led by Detective Superintendent Leonard ‘Nipper’ Read found it impossible to find any witnesses everyone really knew who had committed the murder. George Cornell’s wife Olive certainly did and she turned up at 178 Vallance Road shouting and screaming and threw a brick through the window of the Kray’s family home in anger. Ronnie had now killed someone and thought it was now time Reggie did likewise. Jack “the Hat” McVitie was a small time member of the Kray gang who had reneged on a contract to kill Leslie Payne, a former accountant of the Krays. Jack ‘The Hat’ had been paid in advance but unwisely had been boasting that he had cheated the twins out of their money. McVitie was lured to ‘a party’ taking place in the basement of 79 Evering Road in Stoke Newington. Reggie Kray put a pistol to McVitie’s head and pulled the trigger twice, but it just clicked and nothing happened.

Ronnie Kray then held McVitie and Reggie, with a large knife, stabbed him in the face and stomach before driving the blade deep into his neck. One of the gang would later say, “when Reggie was stabbing Jack, his liver popped out and they had to flush it down the toilet.” McVitie’s body has never been found. It was to be over two years before the Kray Twins were arrested for the two murders which eventually became their downfall. It didn’t take long for the accountant Leslie Payne to realise he might as well talk to the police. The code of silence that had protected the twins for so long was slowly being broken down. Late in the evening of May 8th 1968 a huge team of nearly 100 armed police officers arrived at Tintagel House in Vauxhall for a final briefing. Tintagel House had been Nipper Read’s headquarters specially chosen to be away from Scotland Yard and any of the Krays’ paid informers. At dawn the next day the team simultaneously arrested the twins and twenty-four other members of the Firm.

The twins were found at Braithwaite House in Finsbury (their mother’s council flat as Vallance Road had been demolished as part of the East End slum clearances) where they found Ronnie curled up with a young fair-haired man and Reggie sleeping with a girl from Walthamstow. On July 6th, 1968 the twins appeared at a hearing in front of the Metropolitan Chief Magistrate, Mr Frank Milton, at Old Street Court. Among the witnesses, at last, was the barmaid from The Blind Beggar – known, as far as the court was concerned, as ‘Mrs X’. Although she had been unable to identify the killer of Cornell on the night of the murder, now under police protection she felt safe enough to point out Ronnie and Ian Barrie as the two men who had walked into the bar that evening. There was now enough evidence against the twins and the case was referred for trail at the Old Bailey. An anonymous letter sent to Scotland Yard about the Krays. One of many. A police Black Maria van is escorted from Bow Street Magistrates Court, taking Ronald and Reginald Kray back to Brixton Prison after they were remanded in custody, charged with murder.

PA/PA Archive/Press Association Images After eight months on remand, the Twins went to trial in January 1969. It was the longest and most expensive criminal case in British history and continued for several weeks. On March 8th, 1969, after six hours 55 minutes the jury unanimously found the Ronnie and Reggie Kray guilty for the murders of Cornell and McVitie. Mr Justice Melford sentenced the twins to thirty years on gaol with no chance of parole. For years the Krays’ supporters, of which there were many, maintained that the only people who suffered during their ‘reign’ were other villains and members of the East End underworld. For the ordinary person the East End was safer back then they would say. When the broadcaster, photographer and writer Dan Farson once told the Cockney actor Arthur Mullard that the Krays ‘only killed their own kind’, Mullard responded in his distinctive voice, ‘Yus, ‘uman bein’s! It has often been written that one of the bullets used to shoot George Cornell ricocheted and hit a juke box while ‘The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore’ by the Walker Bothers was playing.

The pub didn’t have a juke box back then only a record player but it seems the song was playing when Ronnie Kray walked into the Blind Beggar. However no one really knows whether the story is true that while Cornell lay dying a bullet made the record jump leaving it playing: ‘the sun ain’t gonna shine anymore, anymore, anymore, anymore, anymore…’ Scene outside the Blind Beggar pub on Whitechapel Road, Stepney, where Richardson gang associate George Cornell was shot in March 1966. Ronnie Kray was charged with his murder. The car parked outside belongs to Mr Cornell. 11th March 1966.

Share this: Krayzy Days – Why London gangster Ronnie Kray really shot George Cornell inside the Blind Beggar pub in 1966 | John Fleming's blog - SO IT GOES Krayzy Days – Why London gangster Ronnie Kray really shot George Cornell inside the Blind Beggar pub in 1966 (A version of this piece was also published on the Indian news site WSN ) Malcolm Hardee iconic autobiography Towards the start of comedian Malcolm Hardee ’s autobiography I Stole Freddie Mercury’s Birthday Cake , this passage appears: ______________________________ There was a club in Catford called The Witchdoctor. It was a club we all went to although they didn’t sell drink. Downstairs there was ‘Mr Smiths’ – a gambling casino…. Eddie Richardson was involved in a big shooting at Mr Smith’s, underneath The Witchdoctor. It was a inter-gang thing. They all met down the gaming club and this bloke got shot and was bleeding all over the place from an artery. ‘Mad Frankie’ Fraser (the Richardson’s infamous ‘enforcer’) hit a bloke who subsequently died and ‘Mad Frankie’ himself was shot in the thigh.

He got outside and the police found him lying in a front garden round the corner in Fordel Road, Catford, where my Aunt Rosemary and Uncle Doug were then living. His mates had just left ‘Mad Frankie’ there. A bit inconsiderate to the neighbours. No-one outside South East London knew the Richardsons until they were arrested and there was a lot of publicity at their trial about torturing people in a home-made electric chair. But everyone knew The Krays . As comedian Lee Hurst says, the Blind Beggar must be the biggest pub in the world. Every time you meet a London taxi driver he says he was in the Blind Beggar the day Ronnie Kray shot George Cornell. Some people say the Krays wouldn’t have been big if there hadn’t been the shooting in the Blind Beggar. But these days people are getting shot all the time. In the paper yesterday there was a bloke shot in a pub in Yorkshire at lunchtime. I suppose The Krays were setting a trend. The Krays also had that showbiz thing about them.

They actually owned a club; the actress Barbara Windsor was a girlfriend of Charlie Kray and later married Ronnie Knight who worked for The Krays; and the Conservative politician Lord Bob Boothby, whose mistress had been Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s wife, was having it off with Ronnie, the gay Kray. ______________________________________________________ Micky Fawcett in the May Fair Hotel, London, yesterday Yesterday, I had tea at the May Fair Hotel in London with former Kray Twins associate Micky Fawcett. His new book Krayzy Days is that rare thing – a totally true insight into what it was like being with the Kray Twins – Ronnie & Reggie – and their brother Charlie. “Did the Kray Twins have a sense of humour?” I asked. “Ronnie had a very good sense of humour,” Micky told me, “Reggie had no sense of humour, but Ronnie did.” “What type?” I asked. “Black humour?” “Yes,” said Micky. “Black humour.” “Or maybe black and blue,” I suggested. “He was an Oscar Wilde type,” mused Micky. “I’m not saying he was witty, but he would have loved Oscar Wilde.

The way Oscar Wilde used to carry on.” “Because he felt he was clever and superior?” I asked. Ronnie Kray (left) with boxer Sonny Liston & Micky Fawcett “Well, Ronnie felt superior,” Micky agreed. “He was called The Colonel. He thought he was superior to everything and everybody. As I say in my book, I was round the Twins’ house one day and somebody dropped in a copy of Private Eye . It was about ‘Knacker of The Yard’ (Private Eye’s name for un-named policemen) and all that – I can’t remember exactly what it was about. But Ronnie read it and laughed for the rest of the day. “He used to describe himself as ‘a well-known thug and poof’.” “But,” I said, “he took exception when George Cornell called him a poof.” “No, that’s…” said Micky. “When Ronnie shot him in the Blind Beggar pub,” I added. The Blind Beggar pub in London “Well,” said Micky, “in the book I tell the true reason for that. It has nothing to do with homosexuality at all. It’s in the book. I was visiting someone in Dartmoor Prison.

But, the day before the Blind Beggar shooting, there was the big tear-up at Mr Smith’s in Catford.” “That’s the one mentioned in Malcolm Hardee’s autobiography,” I said. “Yes,” said Micky. “Everybody was Whoa! Did you hear that? Whoa! My God! and all that. Frank Fraser finished up with a bullet in his leg in that front garden. It was a big tear-up between the Richardsons and another local ‘firm’. “The following evening, I was going to Dartmoor, so I went over to the Regency club to meet the fellah I was going with – the Regency being a club in Hackney frequented by the Krays, who had a small share in it. People think they owned it, but the Barry family owned it. “When I got to the Regency, I saw Reggie outside and he said: What about the news! Reggie was a very uptight sort of fellah. He never hardly showed his emotions. But he grabbed hold of me and he was waltzing me round on the pavement saying: What about it, Mick? Wasn’t it great? The Richardsons had been arrested.

“But I didn’t feel very elated by it at all. They had never done anything to me and, as I came away, I thought to myself: I’ve a feeling now that the next thing is going to be them (The Krays). Once these things get underway, the police nick everybody. The Richardsons had been arrested, but it wasn’t something to celebrate. “I met my pal. We went to Dartmoor Prison. Visited a fellah down there. Frank Mitchell was on the visit as well. When we used to go to Dartmoor, we’d get my mate out and say to the screw (the prison guard): Can you get Frank Mitchell too? and he’d get Frank Mitchell.” Nine months later, ‘Mad Axeman’ Frank Mitchell was sprung from Dartmoor Prison by the Kray Twins and subsequently murdered on their orders when they found out he really was uncontrollably mad. “Frank Mitchell would come for a chat at Dartmoor,” explained Micky, “because he didn’t have any visitors of his own. He’d sit down and say to the screw: You look after him, cos he’s a friend of mine and I’m telling you, if you don’t...

and the screw would say Alright, Frank, alright. OK, Frank, keep calm... That’s a fact. They were good experiences when I look back. “Anyway, we come home to London and, early in the morning, I got a newspaper and it said: MAN SHOT DEAD IN THE BLIND BEGGAR PUB. So I get on the phone straight away to Charlie Kray. He says: Meet me outside Mile End station. So I go straight there and I can remember it as if it was yesterday. George Cornell in a police photo “I said to him: Reggie? and he said No, Ronnie. I said Yeah? He said Yeah. What’s happened, Mick… you know that turn-out down there…” (Micky and I agreed that, for the rest of the exact detail of this story, you will have to buy Micky’s book… He’s no fool and I am not going to argue with him. So there is a section of our conversation missing here… Micky then continued…) “So he’s going to throw a petrol bomb into Freddie Foreman ’s pub.

“And Charlie Kray told me I wish you’d been here, Mick, because you’d have been the obvious choice to send over because I would have liaised – I used to – but they sent Nobby and he’s come back and gone Oh, it’s all off again! Murders! We’ve gotta do something! They’re going to burn Fred’s pub down! “And Ronnie’s gone What? And Ronnie’s got all excited, cos he’s mad and he’s gone Give me a shooter! Right! Right! Let’s have a drive round and see if we… and he’s gone into the Blind Beggar and Boom! and that’s it. Just cos Cornell was one of them, cos he was associated with the Richardsons. “I got on well with Georgie Cornell. He came from Stepney but was very friendly with the Richardsons in South London. He wasn’t 100% with them all the time. And all kinds of strange stories have gone on about why he was shot. Micky Fawcett’s new myth-busting book “The strangest of them all is that Georgie Cornell gave Ronnie a terrible beating on some previous occasion. John Pearson says it in his book.

But the fellah who told Pearson is a terrible liar.” “Is he alive?” I asked. “Yes.” “Well I’m not going to print that he’s a terrible liar, am I?” I said. “He might take it amiss.” “Don’t worry about him,” Micky told me. “He’d have trouble getting out of his armchair.” “There are so many stories,” I said to Micky: “The comedian Lee Hurst used to say that the Blind Beggar must be the biggest pub in the world because, every time you met any London taxi driver, he would claim he was in there the night Ronnie Kray shot George Cornell.” “Well,” Micky told me, “in the pub that night there really was this fellah called George The Fib.” “Is he violent, is he still alive and does he live near me?” I asked. “You’re OK,” said Micky, “he’s dead. But he was called George The Fib cos he was known for lying about everything so, when he told people he had been in the Blind Beggar the night of the shooting, no-one would believe him. He was going around afterwards saying What about that turn-out?

I was in there that night… but no-one would believe him. The Old Bill didn’t even interview him.” “Krayzy Days indeed,” I said. TheKrays.co.uk | Stories In Depth | George Cornell George Cornell On the 9th of March 1966, George Cornell was killed in the Blind Beggar public house by Ronnie Kray. It has been said that Ronnie killed him because he called him a big fat poof to his face. If this had been the case then he would have been killed there and then. The fact that he may have uttered these words at all would prove to be just another nail in his coffin. George Cornell had grown up with the Twins in the back streets of the East End so they knew him as well as anyone. They weren't afraid of him but they knew what he was capable of and they were always wary of him. He was a formidable looking figure, about six foot tall , with a neck like a tree trunk. The man knew no fear, he was aggressive and could handle anything or anyone that got in his way. He has been described as a 'sick sadistic bastard' that loved to inflict pain on his enemies.

He once got 3 years for slashing a woman's face. He was a heavy drinker and when he was drunk everyone would stay well clear of him. He moved to South London after meeting a girl from The Elephant and Castle. And it wasn't too long before he teamed up with Charlie and Eddie Richardson, the scrap metal dealers who ruled South London and Mad Frankie Fraser, the enforcer. The Krays were upset that their one time acquaintance had teemed up with their rivals who, as well as the Krays, were fighting for control of gangland London and the West End in particular. There were a number of occasions when the Twins tried to muscle in on the Richardsons but were told by Cornell, in no uncertain terms that there wasn't any room for them in the deals. They seemed to accept this at the time but Ronnie didn't like being spoken down to, especially by Cornell. This played on Ronnie's mind and when the shooting at Mr Smith's and the Witchdoctor took place, he knew he had to act. It was at Mr Smith's that their cousin Dickie Hart was shot and killed. They blamed Cornell, who they say, was the only one to escape from the scene.

A few days later, Cornell and Albie Woods were visiting their friend Jimmy Andrews in hospital who had lost his leg in a shooting. On the way back they stopped for a drink at the Blind Beggar public house in the Whitechapel road. The Twins were having a drink with some of the Firm in the 'Widows' pub in Tapp street. It's real name was the Lion but it was called the 'Widows' because the Landlady's husband had died. Ronnie received a phone call telling him that Cornell was in the Blind Beggar. He told Reg that he was going to do Cornell. Reg said "lets talk about it". But Ronnie didn't want to talk. His mind had been made up long before the phone call. He took Reg's driver, John 'Scotch Jack' Dickson and Ian Barrie, his right hand man. They jumped in their Ford Cortina and set off for the Beggars. On the way they stopped to pick up some guns. When they arrived at the pub, Dickson waited outside while Ron and Ian Barrie went inside. Cornell and Woods were seated at the bar.

When Cornell saw Ron he said, "Well look who's here" in a mocking, sneering sort of way. Ron didn't say a word he just took a 9mm Mauser pistol from his pocket and shot Cornell In the head. Ian Barrie fired some shots into the ceiling. They turned around and walked out as calmly as they had walked in. There was a record playing on the juke box that had been hit by one of the ricocheting bullets. It was called 'The sun ain't gonna shine any more' by the Walker Brothers and it and it kept repeating, "the sun ain't gonna shine any more...any more...any more....." A fitting epitaph for George Cornell. Ron went back to the widows and told Reg what had happened. They then went to a pub called the Chequers where they got cleaned up and changed their clothes. The news on the radio confirmed that Cornell was dead. Ron couldn't have been happier. It wasn't long before the Twins were arrested and put on an identification parade. The witnesses couldn't or wouldn't identify them and they had to be released. The killing of George Cornell, for the moment, was put to rest.

George Cornell - Welcome to Cockney Pride Welcome to Cockney Pride George Cornell Ron & The Blind Beggar On 9 March 1966, Cornell and his friend Albie Woods entered the saloon bar of the Blind Beggar pub, ordered some light ales and then sat upon stools next to the bar. At around 8:30pm, both men were approached by Ronnie Kray; on seeing him, Cornell sneered with sarcasm "Look who's here". Ronnie Kray walked towards Cornell, took out a 9 mm Luger, and calmly shot him once in the forehead, just above his right eye. Cornell slumped against a nearby pillar, the bullet, apparently, passing straight through him. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died at around 03:30 a.m. The news spread rapidly. Although Ronnie Kray was identified by several eyewitnesses as he calmly left the public house, no one would agree to testify against him and the police were forced to release him from custody. Cornell was buried in Camberwell New Cemetery, South London.

frank mitchell On 12 December 1966 the Krays helped Frank Mitchell, "The Mad Axeman", to escape from Dartmoor Prison (Frank Mitchell should not be confused with the contemporaneous Frankie Fraser, "Mad Frankie Fraser", who allied with the Krays' rivals, the Richardson gang). Ronnie had befriended Mitchell while they served time together in Wandsworth prison. Mitchell felt the authorities should review his case for parole, so Ronnie felt he would be doing him a favour by getting him out of Dartmoor, highlighting his case in the media and forcing the authorities to act. Once Mitchell was out of Dartmoor, the Krays held him at a friend's flat in Barking Road, East Ham. However, as a large man with a mental disorder, he was difficult to deal with. He disappeared and his body has never been found. The Krays were acquitted of his murder. Freddie Foreman, a former member of The Firm, in his autobiography Respect claimed that Mitchell was shot and the body disposed of at sea.

Playwright Gill Adams wrote the play 'Jump to Cow Heaven', based on Frank Mitchell's time in hiding in the flat in Barking Road and his relationship with his minder and with an escort sent by the Krays to keep him company. The award-winning original production included Martin Freeman in the cast. Frank Mitchell Son of Krays murder victim breaks 50-year silence: ‘I hate them but I hate their worshippers more’ – The Sun KRAY murder victim George Cornell’s son Billy has blasted the celebrity surrounding the notorious gangster twins who ruled London with fear in the 1960s. Billy, 58, whose dad was shot in the head at point-blank range by Ronnie Kray in the Blind Beggar pub, in Whitechapel, broke 50 years of silence over the 1966 murder. Billy, who was eight at the time of the killing, said his dad was “not the only victim that night” as the shooting wrecked his family life and forced his sister Rayner to move abroad with her children so they could avoid being associated with the cold-blooded killing of their granddad.

Getty He said he hates Ronnie and Reggie Kray but reserves special scorn for those who idolise the gangsters thanks to their film and TV depictions. Speaking to the Daily Mirror Billy said: “The Krays widowed my mother and orphaned two children, and my daughter and nieces and nephews never met their grandfather. “My father was not the only victim that night. “I hate the Krays and anyone who is part of their family – and worse, the people who hero-worship them today as some kind of glamorous Robin Hoods of the East End. “They were vicious and evil.” PA His father’s murder has been re-enacted repeatedly in films and TV, which glamourise the violent brother’s gangland lifestyle. Most recently the murder was portrayed in Legend, starring Tom Hardy. The killing revealed the depths to which the killer brothers would go to, but also signalled the beginning of their downfall. Their underworld empire crumbled as a result of Ronnie’s life imprisonment for the murder and Reggie’s brutal slaying of Jack ‘The Hat’ McVitie. George Cornell had known the Krays since childhood, when they were growing up on the streets around Whitechapel, and for a time they even did business together.

George worked as a Billingsgate fish porter from the age of 12, and then at the nearby docks where he ran credit rackets. He said: “Dad knew all the traders in Mile End and the guvnors of all the pubs. “He made his money setting up warehouses and buying in goods on credit then selling them cheap and folding the business without paying his bills. “He was from a very poor family but was physically strong and good with his fists. When people saw he could fight he got respect, they were afraid to challenge him. Billy told how, at the age of four, he went to the Krays’ home in East London with his dad for a tense business meeting. He said: “I recall being in the front room and them drinking tea. “Ronnie was very edgy, like he could snap at any point and his brother was flash with a nice suit and slick way about him.” He said his dad hated Ronnie Kray and a simmering feud developed later when he became close to south London’s Richardson gang.

“Ronnie was gay and liked being with young boys and to my dad, who was a gentleman who wouldn’t let anyone swear in front of a woman, in those days that was unacceptable,” he said. Cornell left the East End in the mid-1950s when he married wife Olive from Camberwell, South London, and set up his family in two flats there. Billy said: “He made a success of himself in the most difficult circumstances. “He was always well turned out in Aquascutum suits, Burberry raincoats and crocodile skin shoes. “We had money and nice food at Christmas and he had a car and we lived in two flats in south London and had a house in the countryside.” George became an associate of the Richardsons who, with their enforcer “Mad” Frankie Fraser, terrorised London in the 1960s and 1970s. READ MORE: “Dad wasn’t scared of anyone,” says Billy. “I recall more than one occasion where he came home bashed up after a fight. “One time we were in Maidstone, where we had a bungalow, and we’d stopped in the town centre so mum could get some cakes.

“My dad parked his Austin 11, and we were waiting in the car when a bloke came over and told him not to park where he had as it was for cabs. “My dad told him to ‘leave off’ and said he was only waiting for his wife but the bloke wouldn’t let it go and three other men came over and were getting on to dad. “He got out of the car and took all four of them on and gave them a hiding.” It was Cornell’s refusal to show fear to Ronnie Kray that sealed his fate. On March 8 1966 there was a gang battle between the Krays and the Richardsons gang at a nightclub in Catford, South London. Richard Hart, a pal of Ronnie and Reggie , was shot dead outside the back doors. The next day fearless George Cornell went to the Krays’ territory in the East End to visit a friend who had been shot and was being treated at the Royal London Hospital.

Billy said: “My dad went into the Blind Beggar opposite the hospital for a pint after he had seen his mate.” He added: “Dad was talking to someone he knew in the pub but they said they had to go – I think West Ham had just qualified for Europe and the only place you could get coverage was on the radio and he said he was going to listen to that. “He didn’t though, he went outside and called the Krays and told them dad was in the pub.” The Krays headed to the pub after picking up a gun. Billy said: “Dad was drinking and turned as the door opened and saw Ronnie, and said: ‘Look what the cat’s dragged in.’ “Ronnie pulled out a gun and as dad went to get off his stool he shot him in the head. “I think dad probably knew what was coming when Ronnie walked in but he wasn’t afraid of anyone. The twins drove off and my father was taken to the hospital but, although they tried to save him, he died two hours later.

“The two men he was with had to leave London as they knew they would be next as witnesses.” Revealing the moment he knew his dad was not coming back Billy said: “People were talking to me, asking me about football and how I was, but no one said dad was dead – but I knew he wasn’t coming back again. “It was mum who told me, she said: ‘Your dad went out and there was a fight, it was with someone he has been angry with for a while, someone he worked with, he got killed.’ “It didn’t really sink in, I don’t know when it did. I know there was a big funeral and I wasn’t allowed to go. I remember looking out the window of our flat at the square of green outside and it being covered in bunches of flowers, like a carpet. “My father was liked and respected and people showed their respect.” He said his mum, who was widowed in her 20s “never recovered”. Billy said he has shunned TV shows and movies about George’s death. He revealed: “I can’t watch the films, people making money from those two killers makes me sick.

When they died I wanted to go down to the funerals and tell all those people who have their faces tattooed on their arms what they were like, but my mum begged me not to. “My sister got sick of being known around here because of dad’s death and moved to Spain to try and protect her children from it as they grew up.” He added: “I used to see a lot of the old faces around, Frankie Fraser knew my dad and said he was a good guy to me and people say I look like him. But no one ever wants to hear our story, it’s always about them – but they wrecked our lives.

“People should remember they were killers and not be fooled by the pictures of them in suits with celebrities.” 50th anniversary of Krays shooting of George Cornell in Blind Beggar marked by memorabilia sale - News - East London Advertiser 50th anniversary of Krays shooting of George Cornell in Blind Beggar marked by memorabilia sale 15:12 12 March 2016 Blind Begger Killing of George Cornell by Ronnie Kray in March, 1966, by artist Joe Machine Joe Machine Memorabilia of the Krays gangland family goes on sale at Whitechapel’s Blind Beggar tomorrow on the 50th anniversary of rival gangster George Cornell’s murder. Email this article to a friend To send a link to this page you must be logged in. Reggie and Ronnie Kray and (inset) East London Advertiser's front page reporting their downfall in March, 1969. Cornell was callously shot through the head sitting at the bar of the pub in London’s East End by Ronnie Kray in March, 1966.

It led to the Kray twins’ downfall in 1969 when they were jailed for life at the Old Bailey for Cornell’s killing and Jack ‘The Hat’ McVitie’s murder by Reggie Kray in 1967 at a housed in Stoke Newington. The memorabilia sale from 2pm is being organised by former Page 3 pin-up Maureen Flanagan, with proceeds going to Bethnal Green’s Repton boxing club where the Krays trained. Maureen Flanagan to hold 50th anniversary charity fundraising of Cornell murder at Whitechapel's Blind Beggar pub where she launched her book on the Krays in 2015 Maureen, now 74, who runs the Paragon charity shop at Wells Street in South Hackney, knew the Krays for 40 years and was a friend of their mother Violet, who died in 1982. She launched her book about her friendship with the family at the Blind Beggar last summer, with many of their gangland henchman now in their 70s and 80s turning up.

The twins and their older brother Charlie, who all boxed at The Repton, died between 1995 and 2000. Krays outside their home at 178 Vallanace Road... Reggie (Left), Charlie and Ronnie A collection of artwork based on bedtime stories about the Krays went on public show last year by artist Joe Machine who wasn’t even born when the Kray twins went down for life in 1969. “Other kids were getting bedtime stories about Rupert the Bear,” Joe recalls. “Mine were mainly my dad’s recollections, his shadowy tales of the Krays fighting and shooting other villains in the smoke-filled dark clubs of the East End.” The mythology of the Krays and the East End’s underworld of the 1960s is at the centre of Joe’s artwork, like the Blind Beggar shooting. Painting of Krays "dealing with a liberty taker" by artist Joe Machine (inset) His pictures were on display at Whitechapel’s Lollipop Gallery in Commercial Street until December, a “Who’s Who” of London’s gangland.

Tomorrow’s sale of Krays memorabilia, in aid of Bethnal Green’s Repton boxing clubs, runs 2-10pm at the Blind Beggar in Whitechapel Road. ‘Kraysy’ rush for Kray memorabilia at Blind Beggar where Cornell was shot - Arts - East London Advertiser ‘Kraysy’ rush for Kray memorabilia at Blind Beggar where Cornell was shot 19:29 10 November 2015 Memorabilia of the Krays era Archant A-List associates of ‘The Firm’ and crime fans from all over the country turned a Krays’ charity fundraiser at Whitechapel’s Blind Beggar pub into a ‘Kraysy’ rush for memorabilia of the notorious gangster family who ruled gangland from London’s East End. Ex-Page 3 tabloid pin-up Maureen Flanagan, now in her 70s and running a charity shop in South Hackney, staged the memorabilia fair at the pub where Ronnie Kray shot dead rival gangster George Cornell in 1966. Email this article to a friend To send a link to this page you must be logged in.

Maureen Flanagan with a Kray memorabilia mug advice: 'Keep Calm, Ron's not in the Blind Beggar' Followers who weren’t even born when the twins went down for life in 1969 for murder and conspiracy rolled up to grab momentos such as mugs, T-shirts, prints and books as well as family photos of Ron, Reg and older brother Charlie. Callenders were sold out with pictures of the Krays’ growing up in Haggerston and Bethnal Green from the 1930s to the 50s, with family dates of births, marriages, funerals and the murders they committed. Flanagan also sold out of copies of her book about her 40-year friendship with the Krays which started in 1961 when she did their mum Violet’s hair each week at their home in Vallance Road. A portrait of the Krays was auctioned for £750 to a fan who turned up from Doncaster. The Kray brothers... Reg, Charlie and Ron Good prices were also fetched for original letters written by Ron and Reg from behind bars.

Kray fan Anne Smith has a treasured original from Reggie sent in 1998 wishing her luck when she arrived to live in Shadwell after fleeing from her ex-husband in Brighton who was threatening to murder her. She came to buy Maureen’s book and get it signed. All the glitterati linked to the 1960s’ Underworld turned up for Sunday’s fundraiser, like flamboyant Toby Von Judge, now 75—the posh barrister associate of ‘The Firm’ who studied criminology at Cambridge. “The only way to know more about criminology is to be mixed in with criminals,” he confided. “I met Ronnie who I could get a lot of criminal education from because he was a psychopath, a complete nutter.” Kray fan Anne Smith gets her copy of '40 Years with the Krays' signed by author Maureen Flanagan Von Judge got to know the Krays, but says he “never crossed the line” and always spoke his mind, giving as good as he got. “Lots of times Ronnie told me he was going to kill Cornell because he called him a fat poof,” Toby recalls.

“I said, ‘Ron, you are a fat poof—does that mean you’re coming to shoot me? Get over it’. “In those days, of course, you weren’t allowed to be homosexual. You were put in prison.” 'Posh' Kray associate Toby von Judge at the Blind Begger Toby frequently visited the Krays at 178 Vallance Road and “always got the posh cutlery, the ‘Auntie Rose’ cups that Violet’s sister gave her”. Another A-Lister on Sunday from the Fifties and Sixties was Eileen Sheridan, now 79, the first ‘Miss UK’ in 1958 and ‘Miss GB’ in 1960. She was introduced to two “businessmen” at Churchill’s nightclub in Soho—Charlie and Reggie Kray. “Meeting them was like meeting Frank Sinatra,” Eileen remembers. '1958 Miss UK' Eileen Sheridan, now 79, at the Blind Begger “But they were playing at gangsters, especially Ronnie who could have hired someone to kill Cornell in the Blind Beggar—but wanted to be seen doing it, like a gangster movie.

“It went a bit messy with Reggie killing Jack ‘the Hat’ in Stoke Newington when his gun jammed.” Years later, she was called as a character witness when Charlie Kray was busted for drugs in 1997, claiming he was “set up” by police because he “stupidly pretended he had a drugs connection and just wanted to make a few bob”. Charlie got 12 years for that. Money raised at the Blind Beggar fair is going to the Ley Community charity that former Krays’ henchman Chris Lambrianou helps run for young offenders in Oxfordshire. 1960s pin-ups Sheridan and Flanagan at the Blind Beggar, both now in their 70s Maureen Flanagan, who runs Hackney’s Paragon Trust charity shop in Wells Street raising funds for St Joseph’s Hospice, said: “I have been to the Ley community and seen how the young offenders have given up drugs and crime and settled down with jobs. “Any money we can give helps. Chris Lambrianou is the link. “Young guys like to talk to someone who was notorious.

They don’t listen to parents, teachers or even a priest, but to a man who has served time who will tell them crime isn’t glamorous.” Lambrianou disposed of Jack ‘the Hat’ McVittie’s body after Reggie stabbed him to death in 1967. It got him 15 years. The Kray Twins and the Blind Beggar by Richard Jones Quite often, participants on our Jack the Ripper tours ask about those other legendary East End criminals, the Kray Twins, usually wanting to know where the Blind Beggar pub is, or even if it still exists. One of the most notorious locations in the area, it was where Ronnie Kray shot George Cornell on the night of 9 March 1966. That night, the twins were drinking with members of their ‘Firm’ in The Lion in Tapp Street, Bethnal Green, when a phone tip-off alerted them to the fact that Cornell was drinking in the Blind Beggar. Cornell, who worked for the rival Richardson Brothers south of the river, had a long history with the Krays and there were a number of factors which contributed to the deterioration in their relationship which ultimately led to Cornell’s death.

Former jewel thief Lenny Hamilton claimed it was because some time before, Cornell had knocked Ronnie unconscious outside the Brown Bear in Leman Street, a terrible loss of face for Ronnie. Subsequently, Cornell became very scornful of the twins and would often belittle them in public; the most famous incident was when he allegedly described Ronnie as a ‘fat poof.’ There were other reasons, including a shootout in a south London nightclub involving the Richardsons and where a Kray associate, Dickie Hart, was shot dead. Apparently Ronnie was beside himself over this and when he found out that Cornell was drinking on their patch, he decided there and then to settle the score. Armed with two guns, Ronnie and Ian Barrie entered the Blind Beggar and found Cornell drinking with two friends at the end of the bar. According to the barmaid, two or three shots were fired, one of them hitting Cornell in the forehead and passing out the back of his head. George Cornell was still alive when he was taken to the London Hospital over the road and then on to Maida Vale Hospital for surgery, but he died at 10.29 pm, before anything could be done.

There were certainly witnesses to the shooting, but the ‘wall of silence’ generated by fear of the twins assured that nothing concrete made it to the police until 1968 when the Kray trial began and loyal members of the firm (and the barmaid) gave evidence against their bosses. The Blind Beggar today is a pleasant enough pub and there are a few pictures of the twins on the wall in the back bar area, not far from where the murder took place. Post navigation 9 The Shrubberies, George Lane London

Question: George Cornell was shot by Ronnie Kray in which East End pub in 1966?
Answer: The Blind Beggar